ELLIOT

•chapter two•

my journey was pointless, i walked around campus as if i didn't already know it was the same three buildings copy and pasted everywhere in the shape of a cage.maybe calling it pointless is a bit harsh, i did find a tree, a tree i knew i was gonna spend the vast majority of my spare time under .not like ill have that much of it anyway.

i threw my self face first into the pillow to avoid looking at the boxes that still needed emptying i thought that by the time I'd be back my roommate would have made an appearance creating an excuse to avert my attention from the piles of cardboard overflowing with the most random collection of things that one cant possibly find any use for at college. but he was no where to be seen.

the lack of distractions had my brain wondering to other unimportant topics such as her ,im not saying im completely drained from unnecessary human emotion,but i do try,and i have succeeded so far,so i a haven't the slightest idea why i am so interested in this one human being that i met fifteen minutes ago.i dont even know her name.  i closed my eyes but all i saw was myself drowning in the river of honey that flowed over her shoulders ,maybe this  possible infatuation i might have for her isnt such a bad thing...maybe I should get over this whole lone wolf, people are bad thing

maybe.

i layed there for ten more minutes before the door swung open to reveal a boy, he was about five feet and ten inches and carried boxes that were labelled in Spanish,covering him from the waist up only allowing me to see his worn out cuffed jeans and white airforce ones

he walked over to his side of the room and placed the boxes on his desk followed by a large thud his hair was covered with a mustard beanie with a few tight curls sticking out .he opened one of the boxes and pulled out a backpack covered in a very large collection of pins.he held it really carefully as if he was scared it was gonna break.i don't think he noticed i was also in the room with him until i cleared my throat making him jump and turn in my direction

"HOLY SH-oh god hi oh my god" it was very amusing watching him in this state
"hey" i gathered some energy to lift my arm and threw a small wave in his direction
"uh i'm rico,your room mate i guess" rico?he didn't look like a rico,he looked like a anthony or a marcus
not like i know what a anthony or a marcus looks like
"alex.and yea guess you're stuck with me"this was a lot less awkward when i first imagined it
"coo-"he was interrupted by what sounded like a bark
he pretended like he didn't notice it which led me to believe i was either hearing things or he was semi deaf
"correct me if i'm wrong but uh your backpack just barked"i pointed at his checkered backpack covered in patches and pins
"no oh no that was just my stomach i'm very hungry i should get some food,come with?"
ok he definitely has a dog in that bag
"sure" i said waiting for him to walk towards the door but he stayed put
"oh no no i have to grab something real quick wait for me outside"
ok it's confirmed now he definitely has a dog in that bag
"...sure" i took one last glance at the bag before getting up and heading out the door

"right ok so where do you wanna eat"i don't think he realises we don't have much options since we are kind of in the middle of no where
"...the cafeteria?" he shook his head and looked me in the eye as if he had just remembered something
"i have a better idea"

I followed the back of his head as he led me to the back of campus were there were a few of the older dorms and a fence that was about eleven feet high covered in all sorts of invasive weeds and what looked like poison ivy.

he stopped still facing the fence for a few seconds as if waiting for someone to pop out from behind it before turning to face me "listen dude what I'm about to show you Is kind of supposed to be a secret so just know ,before you get involved, that im infact very gay ,loud and annoying so its not too late to turn back" I took a second to consider what could be behind the fence and if it was worth it and decided that I didn't really have anything better to do so might as well take the risk

I nodded and he walked over to the end of the fence where there was an awkwardly placed brick wall and near the corner was covered in a dying berry bush, he got on his knees and moved the bush revealing a hole with light on the other side he got up and took a phone out of his back pocket making a call. I didn't really understand anything from the conversation except the person on the other line didn't seem very enthusiastic to hear whatever rico had planned

it hadn't occurred to me to question what was happening or where he was taking me, well not until he got on his knees again and crawled through the hole "uh r-rico? where exactly are we going?"

his voice came through the whole muffled "just trust me bro" so I did exactly that and got on my knees, not really paying attention to the dirt on my jeans or the spider webs in my hair. on the other side there was...another wall. I watched silently as rico walked over to the wall that was covered in green vines as if it came out of a movie. if you listen closely you could hear the sound of water running rico turned and threw a smirk in my direction before pulling the vines to the side revealing another hole this one wider than the last. I sighed knowing what comes next, i get on my knees for what I hoped was the last time today and crawled through the hole. I look up, this time instead of a wall there was a blue bench sat in the middle of six trees that varied in size, one was really tall covered in moss and the other was really thin and slightly shorter than the others , whereas another ne was a dark red with holes allowing the sun to shine through. the bench looked like the ones back on campus, except this one was missing a leg and in its place was taped a thick branch, I had barley noticed the other bench that was half sunk into a body of water that was too small to be a lake and too big to be a pond behind all of this was another wall except this time there was no hole, no vines, but a small gate in the bottom left corner covered in chains and boarded up with rotten wooden planks.

"neat ,huh?" I had almost forgotten he was here too "yea...how'd you find this place?" he walks over to the bench but I stay put scared that this was a dream and my movement will trigger its end . " you see my older brother used to go here an he used to tell me stories about how he and his friends found this secret place and how the dean didn't know it existed and blah blah long story short the first thing I did when I got here was find this place and claim it before anyone else did... this isn't even the best part" his face formed another smirk before the vines rustled and the boy with purple highlights from before appeared with a bag filled to the top with what looked like pizza boxes "rico who's your friend?" it was obvious from his face that I wasn't supposed to be here "oh right yea this is Alex ,Alex that's Ryan, his dads the dean so he leaves campus and returns as he pleases...an advantage we have over all these suckers in this hell hole" I nod in his direction, he nods back as he sets his bag on the bench "you got what I asked for"

"yup, no cheese, extra pepperoni..i still think that's fucking weird man" I tried muting out the rest of the conversation staring at the gate that no one else seemed to notice"okok ask the new kid, hey Alex don't you think pizza without cheese is just bread with ketchup on it" I looked at him blinking three times not really sure what to say, but efore I can give an answer someone swipes the slice of peporoni and mushroom pizza out of my hand and answers for me"no I don't think its weird at all, I mean it defeats the whole point of pizza and probably offends Italians but I think its cool that rico has his own little thing" I turn around and come face to face with her, the same dreamy look in her eyes from before "oh hey, its you corner dude" she says with a mouthful of pizza